DIRECTV Adds New HD Channels for Fall

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[RightWhale]

bored with TV

I quit watching about 1975, then restarted about 1985 figuring that after a decade things would have at least gotten fresh. But the Liberal bias of most of the shows was too much and quit probably for good some 15 years ago. Radio runs all day and night: I know a tremendous amount about UFOs and the Philadelphia Experiment and Area 51.

[ARA]

what package do you get...? I have all the channels and hardly a spanish channel.

[Nowhere Man]

HD or no HD today’s TV with all of the channel choices suck. We have Direct TV with a premium package and it seems like night after night with all the channels to select from we find nothing on worth watching. We HATE reality TV, We find American Idol and the rest of the so called talent shows an over-hyped bore, and the rest of the channels keep playing the same stuff over and over again

I am certain that back in the 1960’s and 70’s with only six channels we had so much more to watch. I don’t remember flipping through the channels and finding nothing to watch. And each night had more variety than today. Then do I have to remind you of Saturday Morning Cartoons? Turning on TV Saturday morning was an event to look forward to. Todays Saturday cartoons look like Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday, same crap.

It's is like the old song, "500 channels and nothing on." Crap stll looks like crap no matter if it is in NTSC or HDTV. Our "newest" TV, the 1982 Zenith System 3 25 inch console, has a great picture that rivals some HDTV sets. We've been watching it daily since 1983.

"Survivor" is OK, but they are going way overboard with reality TV. I think the reason why they do is because it is cheaper than paying actors and actresses. Even Survivor got its start in the 2000 season during an actors strike, CBS needed something new to fill the void so there ya go. I'm a big fan of Jericho that was just cancelled, one of the few shows I watch (watched?) and is of good quality. Us fans are trying to save it for a second season or at least a miniseries to tie up the loose ends. CBS did it a bad deed by having a hiatus from November to February and putting it up against American Idol (which is way overhyped)

If they cancel "24," my TV will only be good for news, the occasional old movie from Turner Classics (and so on), "Adult Swim" from the Cartoon network, a DVD/VCR monitor and a Playstation monitor. Oh yeah, and for various sports like NASCAR, NFL and so forth.

Saturday morning cartoons were a blast, I've seen many a farm report (do they still have those?) after TV sign on, just waiting for them to start.

Also many TV stations had local programing both for kids and adults. In Pittsburgh, we had Paul Shannon on WTAE-TV (Channel 4) on Sundays with kid's programming, also Captain Jim and Don Riggs with "Willie the Duck" on WIIC Channel 11, now WPXI) on weekday mornings. Later on, WPTT, channel 22 had "Captain Pitt" for the afterschool crowd. Channel 9 out of Steubenville, Ohio had "Creegan and Crow" for the afterschool crowd and if you wanted grade B movies, there was the "Money Movie" on Channel 27 out of Youngstown, Ohio.

[Always Right]

OK, that makes more sense.

[devane617]

I am really upset with DISH. Been a customer since day-one, I pay them $120+ per month for service, and now that I have upgraded to new HD TV, they want to charge me $149 for a new box, along with an 18 month commitment. I told them HELL no!. As much as I have spent with DISH, they should gladly offer me a free HDTV upgrade like they do new customers. Looks like I will be switching to TimeWarner Cable, or DirecTV.

[TC Rider]

Maria Bartiromo
Joey Ramone

What’s happening on Wall St.
What’s happening at the Stock Exchange
I want to know
What’s happening on Squawk Box
What’s happening with my stocks
I want to know
I watch you on the TV every single day
Those eyes make everything okay
I watch her every day
I watch her every night
She’s really outta sight

Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo

What’s happening with Yahoo!
What’s happening with AOL
I want to know
What’s happening with Intel
What’s happening with Amazon
I want to know
I watch you on TV every single day
Those eyes make eveything OK
I watch her every day
I watch her every night
She’s really outta sight

Maria Bartiromo (5x)

What’s happening on Wall St.
What’s happening at the Stock Exchange
I want to know
What’s happening on Squawk Box
What’s happening with my stocks
I want to know

I watch her at the big board every single day
While she’s reporting you best stay out of her way
I watch her every day
I watch her every night
She’s really outta sight

Maria Bartiromo (3x)

[Ditter]

Since we got Direct TV we have not watched ABCCBSNBC at all. We watch Fox News, The History Channel, The Travel Channel, Outdoor Life Channel, Discovery and movies. I could not tell you what is going on with the regular channels. Except the other night we had a guest for dinner and she wanted to watch the Dancing With The Stars finals. We had never heard of it.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Wow that’s a lot for Sat. service, time to check out the other guy, and get the new customer deals they offer.

[Paleo Conservative]

Is this real 720p (or even 1080i) HDTV? Or is it the compressed crap I keep hearing about?

All HDTV signals are comressed.

[clintonh8r]

What is *E? I searched but couldn’t find anything for it.
Thanks again.

[lonestar]

Total choice—135 channels. I’ve really never counted the Spanish stations but there are a lot of them.

[lonestar]

E! is Entertainment on mine. Ch. 236.

[ErnBatavia]

Ditto with Time Warner Cable (who I’m kinda stuck with)

[ByDesign]

“Until I can be assured that there is a DVD player/recorder on the market that will play the over 1000 DVD’s (non-HD) I have in my movie library, I’m not ready to jump into HD. My biggest fear is my library will be obsolete.”

Check out the newer dvd players that “upsample” the signal - older DVD players only send out a “normal” resolution, and the newer players upsample to provide a higher resolution for HDTVs. It’s not real HD, like you’ll get with BlueRay, but it’s better than what you would get without upsampling. The good news is you can get them fairly affordably now, under $100.

I have DirectTV HD (no Tivo) on a 42” plasma, and it’s wonderful. The lineup is lacking, but I got the reciever as a gift, and it’s a nominal charge, so I went for it. Newer movies in HD are great, older material is so-so, sports is amazing, Planet Earth in HD is worth the price of admission.

When I get Mythbusters in HD, I will be happy.

Be warned, to get HD you need the *3* LBN dish from Directv, minimum, right now, and when the new sats go online. I had a dual, for the non HD tivo unit, and it would not pick up the HD sat. I went for the 5 lbn dish, for HD and to support tivo in teh future, and it’s a BIG dish. Installer said my current receiver would get the MPEG4 signal, but the tivos out there would need to be replaced, but he’d heard rumors of a free or $99 trade-in program for the new dvr that will use the MPEG4, and was’nt sure if the new dvr would be Tivo or the horrible proprietary system the current HD dvr uses.

The one thing HD has done for me is it’s made watching Comcast cable impossible - even the non-HD signal on Directv is mush better than what’s pumped through the line on Comcast - watching a freind’s tv the other day, I was shocked at the compression on the premium channels, and horrified as some of the others - and she pays a LOT more than I do, and gets less.

[deadrock]

I’d love to have DIRECTV. Unfortunately it is to sophisticated for us moroons in Canada, so the gubmint won’t allow them in the country.

[steve86]

Stock whores and real estate pimps in HD. Ugh.

[mc5cents]

We just got Verizon Fios in my neighborhood and I am going to ditch Time Warner, I have the cable modem and TV with them now and will go with the FIOS for internet and phone. I already have DTV with locals so I won’t miss the cable tv part, it was just cheaper to do it that way with the internet bundle. Now, I will have everything on one bill as verizon bundles the DTV (w/a 6.00/mo discount) on the phone and internet bill. I will be saving about $60-70 per month.

[Always Right]

Stock whores and real estate pimps in HD. Ugh.

I don't know about pimps, but whore in HD might sell.

[marvlus]

review this.

[Yossarian]

It depends what you mean by real. Cable and Satellite companies compress their signals, but I would not call them crap. Granted, if you could pick up the OTA signals it would be slightly better, but even a compressed HD signal is far superior to SD. I think 98% of viewers would be hard pressed to spot the difference between compressed and non-compressed HD.

I think you're wrong on two fronts:

Cable, or at least Comcast cable, is not additionally compressed beyond the initial compression done at the broadcast station. In other words, it should be the same as off-the-air (OTA), but maybe a little better since it shouldn't lose as many packets in transmission.

Regarding the public perception of compression, it is quite noticable, even by Joe or Jane 6-Pack. Where it is most noticable is in moving scenes - like in an action sequence or anything with a panning camera. These scenes result in massive macroblocking - think of it as ugly digital blurring.

A case of this being noticable is when KQED, my local Communist Propaganda Outlet (otherwise known as PBS station) switched their night-time profile from one small SD subchannel and the rest dedicated to HD, to (at least) 3 (? or 4?) full-time SD-subchannel with the rest for HD. Everyone now comments how horrible the once pristine HD channel now looks. What once was a joy to behold (for non-political content) is now an unwatchable mess.

They supposedly are using advanced bit-tweaking hardware to "steal" bandwidth cleanly, but it isn't working. All this to run PBS-Kids, Spanish programming, and another PBS (largely propaganda) subchannel 24-7. Insane.